Report on pornography

The Office of the Children's Commissioner for England has published "Basically... porn is everywhere" - A Rapid Evidence Assessment on the Effects that Access and Exposure to Pornography has on Children and Young People.

Key findings from the report include:

• that a significant number of children and young people access pornography;
• it influences their attitudes towards relationships and sex;
• it is linked to risky behaviour such as having sex at a younger age; 
• there is a correlation between holding violent attitudes and accessing more violent media;
• children and young people's exposure and access to pornography occurs both on and offline but in recent years the most common method of access is via internet enabled technology;
• exposure and access to pornography increases with age;
• accidental exposure to pornography is more prevalent than deliberate access, and
• there are gender differences in exposure and access to pornography with boys more likely to be exposed to and deliberately access, seek or use pornography than girls.

The report calls for action to develop children and young people’s resilience to pornography, including:

• The Department for Education ensuring that all schools understand the importance of, and deliver, effective relationship and sex education which must include safe use of the internet.
• The Department for Education ensuring curriculum content on relationships and sex education covers access and exposure to pornography, and sexual practices that are relevant to young people's lives and experiences, as a means of building young people's resilience.
• The Department for Education renaming ‘sex and relationship education' (SRE) to ‘relationship and sex education' (RSE) to place emphasis on the importance of developing healthy, positive, respectful relationships.
• The Government, in partnership with internet service providers, should embarking on a national awareness-raising campaign, underpinned by further research, to better inform parents, professionals and the public at large about the content of pornography and young people's access of, and exposure to such content.
• Through the commitments made to better protect girls and young women from gender-based violence in the ending violence against women and girls action plan, the Home Office and the Department for Education commissioning further research into the safeguarding implications of exposure and/or access to pornography on children and young people, particularly in relation to their experiences of teenage relationship abuse and peer exploitation.
• The Home Office incorporating the findings of this report into the ongoing teen abuse campaign. Future activity on this workstream should reflect young people's exposure to violent sexualised imagery within their peer groups and relationships.
• The Youth Justice Board including questions on exposure and access to pornography within the revised ASSET assessment tool, to better inform understanding of possible associations with attitudes and behaviour and improve the targeting of interventions for young people displaying violent, or sexually harmful, behaviours.

For further information visit www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/press_release/content_505.